Selbstopfer
Selbstopfer (
German for
self-sacrifice) was a late-
World War II German project to develop a "smart weapon" for attacking high-value targets such as bridges and command centers. First proposed by
Otto Skorzeny, leader of the
German commandos, and
Hanna Reitsch, the famous test pilot, they suggested using converted
V1 Flying Bombs with a tiny cockpit on top, with a pilot.
About 100 pilots, drawn from
KG 200 were trained, and about 175 of the modified V-1 (named
Fieseler Fi 103 R Reichenberg) were built. Unlike the somewhat similar Japanese
Kamikaze Ohka, pilots of the new Fi 103 R were intended to
bail out just prior to impact, although in reality this would be difficult because of the cramped cockpit, the sharp angle of the final dive, and the fact that the cockpit was located just below the
pulsejet intake.
Testing was carried out by KG 200 on several occasions, dropped from
Heinkel He 111 bombers, with Reitsch herself piloting an unpowered version equipped with a wooden landing skid. Several stories claim operational use, but it appears highly unlikely that the weapon was ever used in combat.
Some other
Nazi secret weapons projects involved near-suicide missions like the
Bachem Ba 349 Natter.
*
List of German special attack aircraft*
The 'Aerial Target' and 'Aerial Torpedo' in Germany, Fieseler (The Argus Newspaper, State Library of Victoria).
*
U.S. Military Intelligence article on German Kamikazes (June 1946)
